A Reminder to be Thankful...

The other day I came across this blog... about a family who suffered a great loss. I could barely make it through. As I began reading, I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes and the knot starting in my throat. This couple had lost a child, not just a child...a baby.

I remember when I found out I was miscarrying my first baby. I felt so many emotions. I wanted that baby. The thought of never getting to hold him/her, never seeing that tiny face, was more than I could bear. It was difficult to know the child that was still in my belly was no longer alive. It was hard to wake up after the D&C and know that it was over. All the plans, and dreams about bringing home a baby were gone.

God knows what we can handle. I couldn't understand at the time why I was going through this. But I know now. It was to experience God's peace. The kind of peace that Paul talks about in Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which SURPASSES ALL COMPREHENSION, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." It was amazing at a time like this that I could say I had peace. But I did. That kind of peace, that goes beyond all human understanding.

When you miscarry, it means that something is wrong. There was something wrong with my baby. God knew this. And God knew that I could not handle giving birth to this child and then losing him/her. So I am thankful that He chose to take my baby to heaven early.

I am venturing off what I set out to say...but thinking about this couple that lost their child puts things into perspective. This has been a rough week. Both of my girls have had terrible head colds. They have had fevers, runny noses, coughs. They have been irritable and whiny. My patience starts to wear very thin.

And then I remember. How badly I wanted these children. How much I prayed for these tiny blessings. I do get worn out being a stay at home mom, I get frustrated. I get annoyed and would love to have just 5 minutes where someone doesn't need me for something.

But, it seems I daily get a reminder that these little lives that God has entrusted to me are fragile. They are precious. They shouldn't be taken for granted. It is a reminder to be thankful.



Caledonia Marie born December 13, 2006



Ashtyn Elizabeth born January 20, 2010

What I LOVE about Valentine's Day

So these are just my thoughts on Valentine's Day...Reasons that I love V-Day:

1. A reason to eat lots of CANDY. I mean honestly, what girl doesn't love a good excuse to eat an ENTIRE box of chocolates?

2. It's the ONE day out of the year that my husband willingly agrees to watch a "chick flick."

3. Flowers. Roses are my favorite and they are pretty much the symbolic flower of the holiday.

4. Getting homemade Valentines from my daughter.

"Let Me Introduce You..."

This guy here is affectionately refered to as "Frosty Reid." My dad purchased this door hanging for me a couple years ago. And he is truly MAGIC. The first winter I had him, I put him on the front door. It proceeded to SNOW until I took him down at the end of February.

Well, I proudly put him on our door at the beginning of December this year. It snowed that weekend. And then it snowed again, and again, and again.

This further proved the fact that he in fact, COULD make it snow. There were some threats made by "friends" at church, that if we did not take him down then there would be consequences... One said friend, even went so far as to commit a crime! She stole him, in broad daylight, while we were at home with the blinds open! (We are obviously clueless because we never noticed until she said something)

We had some jokes going back and forth... And that week the predicted snow actually turned out to be RAIN. Now you're starting to believe, right? Well our friend certainly believed in the power of Frosty. So she shamefully brought him back and placed him in his rightful place on our door. It snowed 2 days later...

Now I love snow as much as the next person...but it is February and I am DONE! So, without hesitation, I have taken Frosty off of the door. I am no longer responsible for any snow that falls in Batesville, Indiana. Until next winter...

We Finally Won the Battle...

Let me start off by saying that Ashtyn was a GREAT newborn. I feel I can say this with confidence because I have something to compare it to. Callie was NOT a great newborn. She didn't sleep through the night until she was 6 months old, and even then it was in OUR bed with us shoving the paci back in her mouth almost every hour...

Ashtyn however slept well from the beginning and even started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. We would lay her down awake and she would coo herself to sleep, and wake up about 9-10 hours later, happy. And then...we moved.

When Ash was 8 months old we moved, and suddenly she decided she didn't like sleeping in her crib. She would wake up and cry, Trey would rock her back to sleep. She wouldn't lay back down in her crib. After fighting this for about a month, we finally gave up and put her in our bed. (SIGH)

A couple weeks ago when we went for her check-up, the doctor told us we really should let her "cry it out." We decided we would wait until she was over her ear infection...

It happened a few nights ago...we put Ash to bed like normal. She would usually wake up about 2 hours later and cry and we would put her in our bed for the rest of the night. But this particular night she didn't cry 2 hours later. Trey and I went to sleep and at about 2:00AM, still no Ash... At 4:00AM I asked Trey to peek in and check on her. He came back and said "she's still asleep."

Well we got really suspicious when we didn't hear her at her usual wake time of 8:00AM. Trey went in and found her happy and awake, standing in her crib! He then came back in our room and we realized that the monitor in our room was on the wrong channel. So...we had survived a night of "crying it out" mainly because we couldn't hear her! Although, I don't think she cried that much because she obviously went back to sleep.

So, there it is...that's how we won. Every night since, we just turn down the monitor in our room so we can hear if something is REALLY wrong. She may fuss for a minute or two, but she has been going back to sleep on her own! SUCCESS!!

My BABY turned ONE!!

It doesn't seem possible that my BABY can be a WHOLE YEAR OLD! It seems that once you have children the years literally go by in a BLINK...Of course we've had quite a few changes since little Miss Ashtyn Elizabeth was born on January 20, 2010.

For her birthday this year we were at my parents' house in Robinson, Illinois. It snowed like crazy that day and was really cold. We had a little party for her that night with just us and my parents, but Ash did get to have her very first taste of CUPCAKE. She loved it!

The next day we had her "one year" pictures done and I am anxious to share those with everyone! They turned out really well, and I'm a little embarrased to say that these were really her first professional pics since she was born...We weren't quite on the ball with getting all those baby pics!

Anyway, we spent a few days at my parents house and that Saturday we had a party for Ashtyn. My sister and brother-in-law were able to come with their kiddos! Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes. There was plenty of sugar to go around!! Here are some pics from the birthday festivities.

Here We go Again...

In January 2009 we experienced the worst ICE STORM that had hit Western Kentucky in 100 years. We drove in horrific conditions to get out of Kentucky and our town was without power for almost a week! So naturally when we heard weather reports on Monday evening that said "massive ice storm" and "potential widespread and prolonged power outages," we took that as our cue to LEAVE!

Fortunately we got out of Indiana before any bad weather started. We've been hanging out at Trey's parents' house in Princeton for the past couple days. We can't go home until we know that we have POWER and the roads are cleared.

CRAZY weather this winter! And supposedly the winter weather is at it's worst in February...not looking forward to the rest of the month!

Wild Woman

I have to say...Callie was such a good baby (once we got past the colic newborn phase). She never climbed on anything, never bothered anything, never tried to get where she wasn't supposed to be. She was easily entertained by cartoons, or toys, or books, or me. I guess that's why I wasn't prepared for little Miss Ashtyn Elizabeth!!

Ashtyn is a TOTALLY different child from her big sister. Ash started crawling at 6 months, and quickly started pulling up to everything. Toys don't hold her atention for longer than 5 minutes and she's only interested in a select few cartoons. She has learned how to escape from our carefully placed baracade that separates the kitchen and living room...several times. We have had to get creative in toy and furniture placement:) She opens every drawer and cabinet (even the childproof ones). She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth and has an affinity for any fuzz she can find to chew on. Ashtyn can climb onto anything and does. She is our little WILD WOMAN!!

December was a BLUR...

So, the month of DECEMBER is pretty busy for us. There's Callie's birthday on the 13th. She turned FOUR this year, I can hardly believe where the last few years have gone! And then there is of course Christmas, and all the shopping, decorating, movie-watching, parties, etc. that goes along with the holiday. Just two days after Christmas is my birthday, I turned a whopping "27" this year...wait, that can't be right. (sigh)

Needless to say, we could barely catch a breath. Plus you add all the SNOW we got during the month and it made life pretty busy!

Here are just a few pics from the miscellaneous activities we had during December 2010.